Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

Microsoft Windows 307• Windows Presentation Foundation, providing a userinterface based on 3D graphics, with objects describedusing Microsoft’s XAML markup language (see xml)• Windows Communication Foundation, providingways for .NET programs to communicate locally orover the network• Windows Workflow Foundation, for structuring andautomating tasks and transactions• Windows CardSpace, for managing digital identitiesin transactionsPlatformsIn the relationship between language and runtime libraries,Microsoft .NET, particularly when used with the C# language(see c#), is similar to the use of Java and its librariesas in the Java Enterprise Edition (EE). For Windows, .NEThas the advantage of being built specifically for that operatingsystem; however, Java has the advantage of running onall major platforms, including not only Windows, but alsoMac OS X and Linux, as well as being an open-source platform.(However, the open-source Mono project has developeda partial implementation of .NET for non-Windows aswell as Windows platforms.)Further ReadingBoehm, Anne. Murach’s ADO .NET 2.0 Database Programming withVB 2005. Fresno, Calif.: Murrach, 2007.Chappell, David. Understanding .NET. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River,N.J.: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2006.MacDonald, Matthew. Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 in VB 2008: FromNovice to Professional. Berkeley, Calif.: APress, 2007..NET Framework Developer Center. Available online. URL: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx.Accessed October 2, 2007.Troelsen, Andrew. Pro C# with .NET 3.0, Special Edition. Berkeley,Calif.: Apress, 2007.Walther, Stephen. ASP .NET Unleashed. Indianapolis: Sams, 2006.Microsoft WindowsOften simply called Windows, Microsoft Windows refers toa family of operating systems now used on the majority ofpersonal computers. Windows PCs run Intel or Intel-compatiblemicroprocessors and use IBM-compatible hardwarearchitecture.History and DevelopmentBy 1984, the IBM PC and its first “clones” from other manufacturersdominated the market for personal computers,quickly overtaking the previously successful Apple II andvarious machines running the CP/M operating system.Through a combination of initiative and luck, MicrosoftCEO Bill Gates had licensed what became its MS-DOS operatingsystem to IBM, while retaining the rights to license italso to the clone manufacturers (see also Gates, William).However, 1984 also brought Apple back into contentionwith the Macintosh. Using a graphical user interface(GUI) largely based on research done at Xerox’s Palo AltoResearch Center (PARC) in the 1970s, the Macintosh wasstrikingly more attractive and user-friendly than the alltext,command-line driven MS-DOS. As third parties beganto offer GUI alternative to DOS, Microsoft rushed to completeits own GUI, called Windows. Although it was actuallyannounced well before the coming of the Macintosh,Windows 1.0 was not released until 1985. Its poor fonts,graphics, and window operation made it compare unfavorablyto the Macintosh. Through the rest of the 1980s,Microsoft struggled to improve Windows. The acceptanceof Windows was aided by several large software manufacturerssuch as Aldus (PageMaker) writing software for thenew operating system as well as Microsoft’s designing orporting its own software such as the Excel spreadsheet.Windows 3.0, released in 1990, was considerablyimproved and began to attract significant numbers of usersaway from MS-DOS—based programs. Microsoft was alsogreatly aided by its ability to leverage its operating systemdominance to make it economically imperative for PC manufacturersto “bundle” Windows with new PCs.About the same time, Microsoft had been working withIBM on a system called OS/2. Unlike Windows, which wasactually a program running “on top of” MS-DOS, OS/2was a true operating system that had sophisticated capabilitiessuch as multitasking, multithreading, and memoryprotection. Microsoft eventually broke off its relationshipwith IBM, abandoned OS/2, but incorporated some of thesame features into a new version of Windows called NT(New Technology), first released in 1993. NT, which progressedthrough several versions, was targeted at the highendserver market, while the consumer version of Windowscontinued to evolve incrementally as Windows 95 and Windows98 (released in those respective years). These versionsincluded improved support for networking (including TCP/IP, the Internet standard) and a feature called “plug andplay” that allowed automatic installation of drivers for newhardware.Toward the end of the century, Microsoft began tomerge the consumer and server versions of Windows. Windows2000 incorporated some NT features and providedsomewhat greater security and stability for consumers.With Windows XP, released in 2001, the separate consumerand NT versions of Windows disappeared entirely, to bereplaced by home and “professional” versions of XP.Introduced in early 2007, Microsoft Windows Vistaincludes a number of new features, including a 3D userinterface (“Aero”), easier and more robust networking, builtinmultimedia capabilities (such as photo management andDVD authoring), improved file navigation, and desktopsearch. Perhaps the most important, if problematic, featureis enhanced security, including User Account Control,which halts suspect programs and requests permission forthem to continue. Although this makes it harder for malwareto get a foothold, many users find the constant “nags”to be annoying. (As of 2008 adoption of Vista has beenslower than expected, with many users opting to remainwith Windows XP.)The next version of Windows, with the working nameWindows 7, should be released around 2010. Its focus